PALAYAN CITY – A five-year-old boy was killed while his two elder siblings cheated death when a residential house, made of light materials, was razed to the ground by a 15-minute fire in Barangay Atate here on Tuesday.
SFO4 Eduardo Sindanum, acting city fire marshal, identified the fatality as Alfred James De Leon and the survivors as Andei Mae, 10, and Abegail, 7, children of Andres de Leon.
Scene of the crime operatives found the charred remains of the boy in a heavily burned corner of the house.
Investigation showed the fire started at about 5:15 a.m. and was declared fire out at 5:30 a.m.
Sindanum said the fire started from a candle which was left by the children’s parents who went to the neighboring municipality of Gen. Natividad to sell goods at about 4:30 that morning.
“The candle was left lit on top of a plastic box,” Sindanum said.
Witnesses said the surviving sisters have already brought Alfred out of the house but the latter returned for unknown reason. “Once the boy was inside, the house totally collapsed,” a resident said.
Sindanum palced the damage at P50,000.
